Holder fulfils early hope

The West Indies, at one stage of the first afternoon struggling desperately at 169 for 6, carried their first innings to a satisfactory, if not commanding, 296 all out just before lunch on the second day of the second Test yesterday.

Roland Holder, at 29, grasping the chance inexplicably denied him for so long, was at the heart of the revival. A well- organised right-hander from Barbados, though born in Trinidad and raised in Antigua, he coaxed valuable partnerships of 51 for the seventh wicket with Curtly Ambrose and 69 for the eighth with Franklyn Rose.

He was 71 at the start yesterday with the West Indies 239 for seven and he and Rose, the tall new fast bowler with obvious batting qualities, continued to expose the limitations of the Indian bowling. Neither was in difficulty as they batted through the first hour and 10 minutes and it was Holder who went first. Ten short of a flawless maiden hundred, he was deceived through the air by the left-arm spinner Sunil Joshi and bowled as he drove over a full-length delivery. He was in for just under five hours all told and, if he could not quite find the fluency of the previous afternoon, the value of his innings could not be overestimated.

He has been around for a long time. While still a boy at Combermere Secondary, the old school of Sir Frank Worrell, Wes Hall and a handful of other Test cricketers, he scored his maiden first-class hundred for Barbados and appeared set for an early Test career. Although he has continued to score heavily and consistently at regional level, has played 30 one-day internationals and gone on five tours, he had to wait until the First Test in Kingston last week before he was given the ultimate recognition every cricketer yearns for.

He had the extra burden of replacing Jimmy Adams, a native Jamaican, on his own patch and a difficult role to fill in a middle order that has been prone to collapse of late. The situation when he came in on the opening day was the latest manifestation of a potential decline but he met it with commendable resolve.

He had to contend only with the threat of Anil Kumble's high-quality leg breaks and top- spinners and, soon, the exertions of a prolonged spell took their toll on Kumble. Without their ever-incisive bowler, the tall paceman Javagal Srinath, who has been ruled out of the series by a damaged bowling shoulder, the Indians are short of firepower. Venkatesh Prasad, who looked so good in partnership with Srinath in England last summer, is clearly exhausted by India's packed international programme, his new opening bowling partner Abey Kuruvilla has been commendably steady, but nothing more, and Joshi has been a disappointment. In the circumstances the recovery led by Holder was not entirely surprising. As the series goes on, the Indians could find themselves repeatedly put to the sword by Brian Lara, Carl Hooper and their colleagues.